Children's Name Shadow Boxes

I finished the shadow boxes for my grand children today!

Geek Shadow Box

I had accumulated a pile of computer parts and related ephemera, so I thought I would make a shadow box with some of it but waited a while to do it.  When I had a request for one, I personalized it somewhat.  Here is the result (outside the frame for photo clarity)

Ornery wrote a little program for me that says happy birthday in geek-ese. :)  Most of the parts are from a keyboard I dismantled, but my daughter gave me the door hanger and CD.  I printed the program out on an old piece of Logarithmic graph paper I scavenged from one of Ornery's files.  There is a clear plastic overlay on top of the paper that is the schematic for a keyboard. The short section of pin plug, wires and the circuit board are all parts of a keyboard I bought in Florida at a resale shop.

The buyer was very happy with the finished product, and that is the important thing (but I thought it was cute as well!)

Decorating my Studio

I have been doing a bit of work on decorating my studio lately.  We moved the ribbon rack to the inside of the closet door...

Painted one wall orange and made this fun bunting,

Created another bunting for another wall, then made these mixed media pieces,

Here are some close ups of the two pieces on the wall with the dahlias...

Then I covered a clock in feathers,

 made a kite,

 painted and glittered a Scrabble rack and put together the word Sparkle with some crystals on it,

 and covered another rack with fabric for my own nick name, Super TaDa.

Now I am working on a shadow box for my granddaughter...

I still have a long list of things to make.  I think my next mixed media piece will have one of our cute little yardstick airplanes incorporated in it and have a saying about living from your imagination. Stay tuned!

A New Shadow Box

This custom order came from someone who apparently did a search for shadow boxes and saw the one I did for Ornery about a decade ago.  The couple loves the song I'm Amazed by You as sung by Tim McGraw, so I used lines from the song as some of the text.  Each of the other components has significance to the couple's engagement.

Before I put it in the frame...

and after.  The curtains of the studio reflected on the glass.

Catching Up

It has been a long time since I posted anything new here, so I am playing catch up.  I have only done a couple of cards this summer, since we moved in May and I have been "nesting" ever since! The house is coming together nicely, though, and I am almost ready to get back to crafting "full time" -- or as full-time as a homemaker can get! Here are a few of the things I have been working on besides painting walls and rearranging furniture...

I have continued to create these fun little stocking ornaments. I decided not to use them in the ornament exchange except as prizes. The rest are going to be gifts and a few may end up in my etsy shop.

One evening I decided I wanted to do a little crafting, so I whipped out this monotone paper (it is double sided, so the stripes and snowflakes are from the same sheet) and decided to do something a little different. I stained the back of the wooden stocking with brown alcohol inks instead of painting it, and I used lace to embellish it. Simple but I think pretty.  The little heart is something my husband cut out just after he got his scroll saw.  It had been wandering around in various containers in my stash so I decided to do something with it. First I stained it with pinks and purples (alcohol ink) then spritzed some glimmer mist on it. I backed it with paper then added the little ruffle and a beaded hanger.  I hung it in my little gallery outside my studio...

The heart is hanging above the framed cards on the left side. The other things are projects I have made--I am especially proud of my first "painting" using mixed media. The shadow box was from a few years ago, and here is the "Z", in its previous state:

It just seemed so plain--especially after I made this "A" for my niece:

Another project my husband and I did together was this frame for some clock dipping bowls I bought at Pottery Barn a couple years ago. It was his first attempt at a frame, and I thought he did pretty well all things considered.

I painted it and lined it with black velvet, then glued everything in. It was the perfect accent for the wall I hung it on.

I am working on some other ornaments for the exchange using old hymnal pages to decoupage on glass balls. I will come up with some sort of fancy tag to put at the top. I also bought another box of clear glass ornaments and will experiment with some alcohol inks on those. I have about twenty projects on my list; as soon as I get things made, I'll be posting.

Shadow Boxes & Frame

Here is the latest set of photos from my recent project. (Next will be new cards...) As you know I have been on a "use it up" mission this year. This chipboard frame had been in the stash for at least three years, maybe longer. I recently found the My Mind's Eye Lil' Robots papers and just this week found (on the clearance table!) a set of Maya Road Robots. The robots were clear plastic cut outs, and I knew they would not show up unless I colored them. Since they were sheer, I first had to paint the backs of them all white. I used a sharpie poster marker for the backs, and sharpies and slick writers for the fronts.

The chipboard swirl that encircles the opening was unfinished, so I used a glitter glaze on it. In my mind it represents a wire running through and "connecting" all the robots together. There are little "gears" (by Little Yellow Bicycle) and wire with tiny jingle bells attached at various places--just things a kid might need if he decided to build a robot... The frame took me HOURS to make, so even though it is "just" chipboard, it is still $25. I think it would look really cute in some little boy's room, or on the desk of a techno geek. :)

Next, I unearthed a set of three (only two are done) small shadow boxes. I found them at a garage sale, so they are recycled in a sense. The top one has a rub-on embellishment affixed to the top of the "glass" (it is actually plastic) and three random print flowers with square embellished brads as centers. The paper background has a very subtle ledger print on it so as not to distract the eye from the text. It is called Random Acts of Kindness, measures 4X7, and sells for $6.

Jonathan Swift penned, "May you live all the days of your life." This little shadow box measures 4X4 and has the clear text attached to the inside of the "glass". A lovely butterfly perches on the corner of airy leaf paper. It is called, Live all the days and sells for $5.

Next up, I am posting photos of two different 12X12 shadow boxes that I have made for Ornery and myself. I am posting them here so you can have an idea of what I can do for you! Cost will vary depending on how many trinkets and embellishments are involved, but I love doing these for people! If you are interested, email me and we will talk...

The top one has a lot of personal notes in it. I did one for one woman that contained (among other things) a photocopy of the advertisement that she put in the personal ads of the local paper. It generated a LOT of interest, and landed her a stellar husband! Everyone has a story to tell, and there are often little bits of paper you don't want to lose track of--we can incorporate them into a beautiful shadow box like these.

This is one I just made yesterday. I covered the chipboard swirl on the right side with some very old hymnal sheet music, and used more of it beneath one of the prints. This one would be much less costly to make because it has a lot less stuff in it.